Search Suspended for Two Crew After French Trawler Sinks in the Channel
Three of the five aboard were taken off by another trawler before the vessel went down south-west of the Eddystone
The search for two crew members of a French fishing vessel that sank in the English Channel has been suspended after two days, with three of the five aboard recovered alive.
The five-strong crew of the trawler Maranello made a distress call at 18:00 BST on Saturday. A coastguard rescue helicopter, a fixed-wing aircraft and RNLI lifeboats began searching an area south-west of the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth, Devon. The intensive multi-agency search continued through Sunday before being suspended at 20:20 that evening, pending further information.
Before she sank, the Maranello contacted another trawler, the Stradale, to report a problem with her fishing gear. The Stradale managed to recover three of the five crew members. Vessels in the vicinity answering a distress relay of that kind are acting on the duty to render assistance that every ship carries under SOLAS, and the outcome here turned on a nearby vessel being able to close the position quickly.
One of the rescued crew was evacuated by helicopter and treated in hospital in Truro, Cornwall, while the other two were taken to Plymouth for medical attention. All three have since been travelling back to France.
Lifeboat crews from Falmouth and Newlyn in Cornwall, and from Plymouth and Salcombe in Devon, took part in the operation, alongside a large number of civilian vessels. A coastguard aircraft equipped with multi-function search radar and high-resolution cameras was also used, and mayday relay broadcasts were transmitted requesting vessels in the area to keep a sharp lookout.
The western approaches to the Channel carry dense fishing activity alongside deep-sea traffic entering and leaving northern European ports, and the area searched sits within that overlap. The cause of the sinking has not been established.
